Should the Internet be censored? Many people might agree on this and those are the people who have younger children online. Many parents feel that the Internet should definitely be censored because the Internet allows minors to explore sites that may be harmful to them; such sites might include pornography. Pornography is a big issue for parents because they feel that it exists all over the Internet. They are not mistaken; it is fairly easy to find pornography on the net. Nonetheless, you will not actually see pornographic en

Can you imagine a place where expressing your own opinion is not allowed? Picture not being able to research a topic of your interest. Can you imagine a place where you can get penalized for your choice of words? Can you imagine living in a society that prohibits you from expressing yourself the way you like? Well, if you live in a democratic society, you probably cannot imagine living under such strict laws. In a democratic society, freedom of speech is necessary because a democratic government is government run for the people, by the people and of the people. Freedom of speech allows us to express ourselves both publicly and privately. Censoring the Internet is a very complex issue that is open for debate.

Just like children, women also are considered to be weak and vulnerable, and unable to take care of themselves. Miller states that "The idea that women merit special protections in an environment as incorporeal as the Net is ultimately bound up with the idea that women's minds are weak, fragile, and unsuited to the rough and tumble of public discourse" (105). Here Miller is bringing up the point that women are usually portrayed to be weaker than men are and they too need protecting from the Internet. Since women have this image of being weak, it is easy for them to use women as an example for censoring the Net. Although, there are many men who are as sensitive about certain issues as women, sometimes maybe more. "Yet, because Seabury is a man, no one attributes the attack to his gender or suggests that the Net has proven an environment hostile to men." (Miller 104) Here Miller is showing us the biased responses that people have against men and women. Because Seabury was a man, nobody acknowledged that he was hurt or that he felt violated. Men carry around the role and the image of being strong, rugged and unfeeling. That is the reason why men are not used to prove a point that the Internet should be censored, because men don't need protecting. In general the media will use whoever they want as an excuse to censor the net. But, what they are not considering is that they are stopping people that don't need protecting from searching the Net freely.

"In an ideal world, virtual communities would acquire new members entirely by self-selection: people would enter an electronic neighborhood only if it focussed on something the

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Approximate Word count = 1579
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)